Someone on my old team (yes, in marketing, like me*) snapped a picture of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talking about Zune at the Retail Vision Summit in Seattle today. I'm trying to get the audio of what Ballmer said edited and encoded, but until then, here's a tidbit. And hey, don't draw too many any assumptions about the Xbox 360 logo next to the Zune slide. Zune is all about the music. (edit 4:42 PM, PST) [Edit 7/27]. I wasn't able to get the audio for folks to hear, but I got a quote about Zune...

. . . but I like them both. This one, folks on the web are saying that it's a Microsoft teaser campaign for Zune. It's not. The other one is by Ira, The Rivercaster . He mentions this blog in the videocast, and if you're watching this, Ira - hello!

Seen a lot of online chatter about Zune and how this affects Microsoft's relationships with partners, including the Plays for Sure program. So I dug around, wanting to get some answers on it. I talked to Sean Alexander, another Microsoft guy (although I don't think he's in marketing like me) posts today about Zune and its relationship with the Plays for Sure program, and partners, saying : . . . To quote Jonathan Sasse, President of iRiver America in a recent CNet News.com article: “Microsoft is...

Another Microsoft employee - who works on a completely different area of the business emailed me and told me he's got a podcast he does out of the UK: Not Your Usual Bollocks ! His last podcast has my favorite song of the day, "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above" by Cansei De Ser Sexy (CSS). Anyway, give 'em a listen